SUNDERLAND PREVIEW: Tough times for the Black Cats but another ‘send in the Canaries’ moment incoming?

Well, a few of us who don’t have to work the next morning will be heading up the A19 on Tuesday. Pick a rude word of your personal choice and direct it at the idiots who make up the fixture dates, by all means.

But there should be no blasphemous words directed at the excellent Colin Randall of Salut! Sunderland, who has once again been kind enough to assist MFW with a match preview. Colin and his fellow Black Cat aficionados are going through awkward times but he was happy to help us out nonetheless.

Firstly, what do you guys think of Chris Coleman and can he keep you up?

Colin: Coleman retains much goodwill because supporters know he was dealt an atrocious hand by a club with an absent, disenchanted owner who wants to sell but – so far, though this could soon change if whispers are true – has been unable to find a viable buyer. But not everyone appreciates his tactics – withdrawing a striker after the goalkeeper’s sending off at QPR, with the score still level, went down very badly – and he has his critics.

Easter Monday offered another example of apparent poor judgement: winning at Derby had given a glimmer of hope, we were at home, Sheffield Wednesday are ordinary and we played with one striker against an away wisdom with two big men up front. And his first substitution was a defender for a defender. There are plenty of fans who, while sympathising with him, feel he is frankly not better than what went before.

Yes, I think many Canary supporters could relate to that, particularly the point about not everybody universally appreciating the employed tactics. Some of us heavily criticise Daniel Farke’s use (or lack of use) of subs and when he goes like-for-like when we’re chasing the game it can be exceptionally frustrating.

Regarding the ownership issue, we have a 180-degree tilt to you: our owners are clinging on like limpets, passing their shares down to their nephew in some kind of perpetuity and whatever some of us might think of it, disinterested they are not. Never absent, they obviously care and are passionate enough in their own way. Most of us prefer that to a direct equivalent of your current situation.

So you can still survive, can’t you?

As for survival, it now looks less likely than ever and most of us are probably resigned to having the best stadium in League One. In the current mess, there is also no guarantee whatsoever of a quick return. Those of us who thought a year ago “well, at least we’ll get goals and wins in the Championship” know better than to make the same mistake when thinking about League One.

It looks as if we will just have to get rid of as many of the big-earning flops as we can and start from scratch with hungry young (local?) lads, a few bargain buys who must include a dependable keeper or two (ours are shocking) and, if we cannot keep Asoro and Maja, one or two able to score in the third tier (no one, however, is expecting a repeat of the Eric Gates/Marco Gabbiadiani strike force we enjoyed in our only other season at that level).

I have horrendous personal memories of Eric Gates – mainly through his Ipswich connections of course. Thanks for reminding me of him!

An apparently disinterested and injury-hit Norwich could gift you three vital points. Your take on that?

We won the game at your place but have performed so disastrously since that it is difficult to view any opponents as obviously beatable. If you have a team needing to end a bad run, a striker stuck in a goal drought or a defender who has been having nightmares, playing Sunderland at the Stadium of Light is just the place for them to change their luck.

Much as I long to have to eat my words, we are the division’s soft touches. The inability to put back-to-back wins together, with all the morale-boosting impetus of a 4-1 win at Derby, speaks volumes. We may scramble a win but a draw or defeat currently looks more likely and even a win may well be far too little, far too late

Ha! we have an NCFC-related website based in these parts called Along Come Norwich, named so because of the sentiments you express in your second sentence above. Our lot have got the sun cream and flip-flops packed so, as I said in my comment to Salut! Sunderland, I reckon you’ll get a 2-0 out of it. I hope I’m wrong for obvious reasons!

Many thanks to Colin for his time and help with this article and I don’t think too many of us here in the NCFC community would be too disappointed if we play SAFC again next season. I hope the “whispers” turn into something concrete mate.

Reader Interactions

Comments

Hurrah a rainy Monday morning and the arch-miserablist Martin is at it again. A selfish, self-interested Board, an inept head coach and players who have given up on the season, what a joyless world you must live in! Thanks for the great comedown from Saturday’s fun!

With respect Llamaman, did you actually read the words in this article?

Nowhere in it have I said the Head Coach is inept and nowhere in it.have I said the Board are selfish or self-interested.

The point I was making with Colin Randall of SAFC (whose opinion is what counts in this piece) is that we have nothing to play for and Sunderland might get a lucky break courtesy of us.

“Regarding the ownership issue, we have a 180-degree tilt to you: our owners are clinging on like limpets, passing their shares down to their nephew in some kind of perpetuity and whatever some of us might think of it, disinterested they are not. Never absent, they obviously care and are passionate enough in their own way. Most of us prefer that to a direct equivalent of your current situation.”

Interpret that how you like but I did not say what you are suggesting.

I refer you to my reply to Richard about the timing of the article.

I would love to engage further but quite rightly Editor Gary insists we are super-civilised on MFW.

This was written quite a few days before the Villa match kicked off, but quite shortly after the final whistle had blown at Loftus Road..

We get these pieces in early because they are what it says on the tin: previews. How were Editor Gary or I supposed to have revised it (why indeed should we) when Colin Randall of Salut Sunderland is the key to this MFW piece rather than myself?

Sure we were as good against Villa as we were poor against QPR. What will happen tomorrow night? We just don’t know.

On the evidence of the Villa match no disinterested players whatsoever, I’ll take that one on the chin.

Hi Martin
A great read and I full agree our owners are the complete opposite to the Sunderland owner and as I said in Gary’s article yesterday after another Interview it is still unclear as to there thoughts, the reported comment Delia said that they would not stand in the way of investment, I must be very nieve or a complete financial novice (my wife would agree to the latter) but as a business surely you have to go looking for investment or at least let it be known you would be interested in having a discussion not hope some shylock will come knocking on your door (Post Code Lottery).
I will now put on my cynical hat on was this an interview to curry some good favor while the ST are being sold?
Blackpool are said to have MAJOR overseas investers near completing some sort of deal with Owen Oyston there is one enormous draw back for the supporters in this and that is Oyston wants to stay and run the club, if these so called investers have done due diligence then they must know the animosity between the family and the supporters, this could happen at city if the Smiths sre not careful.
All city supporters are grateful for what the Smiths have done over the years for the club but all eras come to an end let it be a happy parting of the ways.
Last comnent from her interview that seemed strange
“Even with all the money whilst in the Premiership city still had none spare due to the wages, signing on fees and transfers” to me that surely shows the club had employed the wrong people to run the finances at the club or were taken for country bumpkins ????????

Hi Alex, I don’t wish to offend, but I have a deal of sympathy for your wife – and her view of your financial naivety..
I believe your cynical hat has slipped over your eyes and is blinkering your view too. Delia’s comment was published at the same time as the announcement of 20,000 season ticket sales so it wasn’t quite that cynical of her.
The board have said on many occasions that the club is run as a sort of co-operative, the income being spent and not held back for the future.
On that basis, and in their view quite correctly, they have always budgeted to spent what they earn, so there is no ‘spare’ money as such, it simply gets spent on wages, signing on fees and transfers. OK, so they didn’t allocate some of that money towards improving Colney (McNally would always say ‘best in class’) when they were in the Premier League, but they did spend it on Maddison, Godfrey and others who we all hope will be the future of the club, or provide funds for the club from their eventual sale.
Turning to your Blackpool comparison, do you (or any Tangerines supporter) know anything about these potential new owners? They could be the best, or the worst, news for Blackpool folk – has anyone done due diligence on them, or are Owen Oyston eyes simply filled with pound note signs?

Mike I know from living in Blackpool the distrust that the supporters have for the Oystons and what was proved in the courts last year.
Owen just see £SIGN and as Belokon found out they are not to be trusted in any form where the club is concerned.
Most supporters what the whole Oystons family out of the club and as long as he is even a 1% share holder will not buy season tickets or merchandise thats a big lose of revenue.
Even my financial knowledge goes as far as save for a rainy day spending all your income on wages, transfers, signing on fees and compensation is not good business sence, expanding the ground would have been prudent with some of the money.

But then people would complain, as they did with Chase, that money was being spent on infrastructure rather than players, or not being spent at all.
It’s a no win situation, but if they had got the player investment right, which clearly didn’t happen, then the Colney/ ground improvements might have happened.
I’m unconvinced by the argument for ground expansion and that should be the subject of an entirely separate debate. 35,000 is often quoted as a target capacity, but I cannot see how often we would sell out that number. In fact I would suggest we would probably sell less season tickets rather than more as people would pick and choose their games. Anyway, an argument for another day.
You clearly know more about Blackpool than most around here and I fully accept your view.

Good reply Martin my country bumpkin remark was was in jest that possibly that people might just see city as a soft touch were m9ney are concerned.
Some of the transfered in the last couple of years prior to the new set up seems to point that way neither Naismith or Jarvis to name but 2 have proved their worth.
Yes as Mike says we have purchased 1 or 2 gems in Maddison and Godfrey but the jury is still out on Godfrey.

Don’t think scheduling is the real issue here. If the point as now claimed,is to suggest that it may be to Sunderland’s advantage that City have nothing to play for then fine. Once those sentiments are put in terms of flip flops and suncream then the tone of the piece is changed by this sort of evocative imagery. This was then exposed by the Villa result and then appears quite disrespectful to the efforts of the players.

To be fair Richard, as discussed yesterday this was a failing of the editor. Martin filed this piece prior to the Villa game and I should have added a note to this effect to put it in context. Unfortunately, I didn’t. Apologies.

Watching MOTD again beause of course I am. The first goal made by an overlapping Byram making space for an advancing Tettey, that's right Tettey to take the ball wide, cross to win the corner. Hard to pick an MoM but Tettey was immense after so little football #ncfc

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